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Pfaff Concerts
The Pfaff Concerts were a series of concerts held at the Pfaff Center in Medfield. There have been five of them to date, four organized by Doug Linse, one (the most recent) by Wazoo affiliate Greg Linse. All have benefitted the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Dan Palermo Scholarship, except for one (June 15 2006), which was a benefit for Destination Imagination. =The First Pfaff Concert: May 7, 2005= Performers *'Nuff Said *The Internet Fetishes *Crow *Pete Day As A Band *The Tangents *Lunatic Pandora About The inaugural Pfaff concert. *The headliner, as would be the case with most of the Pfaff shows, was 'Nuff Said. This was their third "real" concert, and the first with Jamie O'Connell truly assuming the role of drummer. *This was also the first appearance of the Internet Fetishes in Wazoo circles. They provided an energetic set that was highly acclaimed by all concert goers. *This concert was when Crow's infamous live instrumentation-only set occurred. It proved to be a huge failure, however, it also set the stage for Gateway To Thousen's first pseudo-performance, playing three songs within the Crow set. *Flavour had recently broken up, and this concert contained the debut performances by the two bands they split into: The Tangents and Lunatic Pandora. The Tangents played a set of jazzy originals, and Lunatic Pandora played a set of alternative rock covers. Both were very poorly received. =October 28, 2005= Performers *'Nuff Said *The Internet Fetishes *Pete Day As A Band *Black Waltz No. 13 *The Tangents About *This concert is universally considered to be the worst concert Wazoo has ever put on. *Despite the debut of the classic "Believing in the Man", this was undoubtedly 'Nuff Said's worst performance. It contained such memorably bad moments as their cover of Death Cab's "Crooked Teeth", the worst performance of their entire career. *The big Internet Fetishes controversy occurred as a result of this show. After performing a poorly received set with Pete Day on guitar, including a ten minute long feedback jam, they retreated to the bathroom for the rest of the night, including 'Nuff Said's set. This angered Jamie O'Connell, who saw it as a sign of disrespect. Pete, who was the Wazoo liaison to TIF, maintained that their singer felt sick and they all felt uncomfortable at a concert where they didn't know anyone. Many Wazoo members thought that they shouldn't play at the next concert, although Day and Doug Linse supported their right to perform at the next show (June 15 2006). Although ultimately it was up to Linse, who organized the shows, the controversy blew over by the time of the next show, and TIF performed. *Pete Day As A Band performed two Tangents songs during his set. The first was "The Plumbing Hero of New York", which the Tangents had just debuted in their set and Pete promptly stole. He also stole a set of unreleased Tangents lyrics, which they had brought with them to possibly play, but had ultimately decided were too bad. Pete put the lyrics in front of him, improvised a chord progression, and began singing it. Mike H realized what the song was, and quickly ran up and ate the lyrics, stopping Day's performance of the song before it got too far. *Upon learning that it was Bridget Brazier's (who was in the audience) birthday, Pete improvised a birthday song for her. It concluded with the heartfelt sentiment, "Happy birthday Bridget, I hope you live until your next one". *This concert contained the only performance by Black Waltz No. 13 (the re-named Lunatic Pandora). The band was supposed to consist of Andrew Thomas on guitar, Jake Spillane on drums and Bryan Grove on vocals. Their whole performance teetered on the edge of disaster. After practicing for weeks, Bryan realized that he had never actually requested work of for the night of the concert. Thus, he had to be at Shaws during the bands set. Faced with the sudden loss of their singer, Thomas decided to be the band's singer. Luckily for the group, Thomas proved to be an adept frontman, regaling the audience with stories in between songs, and playing impromptu parodies of tunes such as "Wake Me Up When September Ends". *Another factor which nearly proved disastrous to Black Waltz No. 13 was that Jake Spillane was constantly distracted by his then-girlfriend in the audience, who frequently diverted his attention from his drumming. *This performance was considered the Tangents' breakthrough performance. The band, still a three-piece at this point, delivered a strong set of mostly new material, which impressed the entire audience. *At the first Pfaff concert, the Tangents had performed a song called "Movie Night". Soon after performing it, they became really embarrassed by the song, with lyrics such as "Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Anything Green". Unfortunately for them, it became something of a "hit" among Wazoo in the summer of 2005. So, obviously, when the time rolled around for this concert, there was much demand for them to play the song. The Tangents, of course, did not want to. The members of 'Nuff Said and, what was at the time, Black Waltz No. 13 especially wanted the band to play the song. So, the three groups entered into a deal: 'Nuff Said could decide a song for the Tangents to play, the Tangents could decide a song for Black Waltz No. 13 to play, and Black Walt No. 13 could decide a song for 'Nuff Said to play. 'Nuff Said, of course, chose "Movie Night" for the Tangents; the Tangents, knowing they would have to play an embarrassing song, decided to make Black Waltz No. 13 play an embarrassing song and chose "Photograph" by Nickelback; and Black Waltz No. 13 chose for 'Nuff Said to play "Gangsters and Thugs" by the Transplants. So, the night of the concert, the Tangents were the first band to play. Following the deal, they closed their set with an acoustic version of "Movie Night". Neither of the other bands held up their end of the bargain. The Tangents were, not surprisingly, pretty pissed off. =June 10, 2006= Performers *'Nuff Said *The Internet Fetishes *Ben Hirsch *The Ben Hirsch All-Stars *The Tangents *Aguasaurus *Fall Out Boy About *This show would be the last Pfaff concert for over a year. *Once again, the headliner for this show was 'Nuff Said. This would be their last headlining performance at any concert, as well as their only full concert performance with Pete Day. Their set contained memorable collaborations with Ben Hirsch, Allie Landry, and Mike H of the Tangents, and Matt Aucoin of Elephantom. The band had also planned to collaborate with The Internet Fetishes on a cover of the "Pokemon Theme Song". *During their performance, 'Nuff Said had dual bubble machines spraying bubbles over them and the audience. However, since the bubble machines were located behind the band, much of the bubbles fell on the ground around their feet and popped, making the floor very slippery. Doug Linse slipped and fell several times during the band's set, most notable when he jumped during "Ripped Out", slipping on his landing and falling and detuning his entire guitar. *This was the Internet Fetishes' last performance. As opposed to their poorly received, controversy-ridden performance at the October 28th 2005 show, this show was extremely well received. To commemorate their last performance, they forwent their usual attire of crazy costumes and wore nice suits. They made and sold copies of their only EP at this performance. *This was the first, and only, performance by the Tangents as a six-piece band. Adding, since their last performance, Doug Linse, Andrew Hoffman and Pete Day. Linse drummed, Hoffman played trumpet, and Day took the guise of a Mexican percussionist named "Miguel". Miguel was more of a spectacle than an actual musical performer. During their opening song, he emerged from a sleeping bag cocoon and banged on a floor tom and crash cymbal. During the rest of the set, he wandered around, banging on things. This performance received very strong reviews from the concert goers, and the Tangents became a prominent musical force within Wazoo. *This concert saw the debut performance of what was to become one of Wazoo's most legendary musical acts (though few would have guessed it at this time): Aguasaurus. Their set was poorly received, and something of a disaster. Somehow, the settings on the PA system had been changed, so that the vocals were only slightly audible and highly distorted. Giovanni Colantonio played bass the whole time with the bass amplifier turned off. However, the performance was not without it's high points; their opening performance of "The Bear" is still thought by some to be one of the best Wazoo musical performances, and everyone agreed that, although the band wasn't that good, Bryan Grove was an amazing frontman. Pete Day, watching from the audience, saw the promise this group held, and when, later on, they needed a new guitarist, he leapt at the opportunity. *See "Fall Out Boy" for more on that.. =December 29, 2007= Performers *Gateway To Thousen *Dirty Flamingo (members of Flamingo Autopsy) feat. Alex Sakach *Alex Sakach and Fred Soligan *The Astaires *The Quibblers About *After a break of a year and half, this was the return of Pfaff concerts. *This concert was plagued by technical difficulties, such as amplifiers that stopped working, and guitars that went out of tune after every song. *The first act, the Quibblers, were added at the last minute. Doug Linse provided drums on two tracks, although he was almost replaced by Mike Cotter of the Astaires. *The Astaires were set to play a 30-45 minute set. Fifteen minutes into their set, during their fourth song, the aforementioned Mike Cotter broke a guitar string. He immediately stopped playing, and, following a bried onstage argument, the whole band stopped playing and left the stage. *This sudden 45-minute long time gap almost proved disastrous. The audience began leaving en masse, dwindling to a very small number as the organizers rushed to find a way to fill this huge gap. Luckily, Alex Sakach came to the rescue. Backed by members of Flamingo Autopsy and Dirty Harry and the Shenanigan O'Riley's (another Medfield group), he serenaded the audience with a stunning version of Oasis' "Wonderwall". This performance effectively saved the concert. *Gateway to Thousen made the audience extremely uncomfortable with their "stage banter". It mostly consisted of the band members mocking each other, and Giovanni Colantonio saying strange things to the audience. His most famous of these remarks was, when Bryan Grove was yelling to him, "Bryan Grove, everyone! Hey, funny fact about Bryan... I kissed him". This statement was greeted by silence, as was the case with most of their onstage remarks. =January 8, 2008= Performers *The Jamie O'Connell Quatro *The Illustrious Man Chorus *Flamingo Autopsy *Aguasaurus About *Organized by Greg Linse as a sort of "sister concert" to the December 28 2007 show. This is also possibly the most documented of the Pfaff shows, as it is by far the most dramatic. *The Tangents were supposed to play a short set as a two-piece but they backed out under pressure from the Illustrious Man Chorus. *Aguasaurus nearly backed out of performing as well, under similar pressure, but Doug Linse convinced them that they had to. *It was a good thing they didn't back out, because Aguasaurs delivered one of their most amazing, and most controversial performances to date, which is documented in greater detail within the Aguasaurus entry. *Flamingo Autopsy performed two sets, with Aguasaurus in between. These sets were very well-received, especially by the members of Aguasaurus, who saw them as a sort of conceptual torch-bearer, and expressed a strong desire to play a show with them. Gateway To Thousen had a similar reaction as well, and the two are in the process of organizing a concert together. *The story of how the Jamie O'Connell Quatro came to be can be read in their entry. However, they almost didn't perform, under similar pressure not to from the Illustrious Man Chorus. The IMC felt that their headlining role would be diminished if the JOQ played after them, but the JOQ defied this pressure. Very few people stayed for their performance, but those who did reviewed it very strongly, and enjoyed it very much. *'Nuff Said considered spontaneously reuniting and performing at this show, but decided against it, as they decided that if they every perform together again, they want it to be really good, not just hastily thrown together.